


Silver Lining

by KoujakusAngrybird



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: Amnesia, Blackjack, Brutal Murder, Canonical Character Death, Card Games, Character Death, Execution, Explosions, F/M, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, Major Spoilers, Murder, Paranormal, Possession, Random Encounters, Some Humor, Spirits, Spoilers, Suicide, Tragedy, Tragic Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-09
Updated: 2015-04-16
Packaged: 2018-03-06 19:32:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3145985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoujakusAngrybird/pseuds/KoujakusAngrybird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Celes and Togami end up spending some time together after Chihiro's trial, but it's not long after that Celes herself ends up committing a murder.<br/>After the lolita's death, Togami finds himself in a very odd, seemingly impossible, and unrealistic situation that's wrapped in as many, if not more, mysteries than the school he's locked in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Visitation

**Author's Note:**

> This is only chapter one, guys, so, yeah, it's kinda slow. Things won't really pick up until later but once they do, you'll probably hate me for all the feels that'll get dumped on you. Originally, this was an RP I did but the Celes and I (yes, I rp as Togami) decided that this was too good to just keep between the two of us. Sadly, we never finished the actual rp but luckily, we planned out all the major stuff (even the ending) and I got permission to turn it into a fic! The storyline _does_ follow that of the actual series so you will hear about the trials and the investigations and all that. What I won't do (and can't do by law) is go in and type out the trials and canon things from the investigations. When the time comes for canon things to happen, I'm going to just kind of summarize what happened and bullet through them, partially to keep things moving, but mostly because I actually can't put it in this.  
>  Now, at the beginning of every chapter, I'm going to have a little italicized paragraph that will either be Celes or Togami speaking, just to kinda set the mood for the chapter. Think of it as them thinking back on the events in the fic or something like that. In this chapter, the speaker is Celes. Don't worry, I'll always tell you who's the speaker in the chapter summary.

_Sometimes, it really is the unexpected conversations in life that matter. Maybe we do not see it, or understand why they ever would at the time of said happening, but in our futures, we always look back and think about past experiences and conversations with a nostalgic fondness. When I ran into **him** , of all people, in that library, I had no idea that I would ever end up looking back upon the ridiculous banter we shared with such a fondness as this._

After a long, hard day, Celestia found herself in desperate need of some sort of a distraction, anything to take her mind off of the trial from earlier. Truthfully, she had not been particularly fond of Mondo Oowada, the loud, yelling brute that he was, but the shy, quite Chihiro Fujisaki might be missed. She, or rather, he, wasn’t the type of person to really make enemies of anyone, unless you hated shy people. As the raven-haired lolita made her way down the eerily lit halls of the lumbering high school she and the others were locked down inside of, she let her thoughts consume her entirety – not that there was anything else she could do, with how deathly silent the place seemed to be.

The girl made her way up the stairs to the second floor, stopping for a moment once she reached the top. Perhaps some of the blocked off areas were now open? She wondered, seeing as it seemed to be the case when Sayaka’s trial was done and over with. Gracefully, she stepped over to the gates blocking the stairs leading to the third floor. Nothing. With a small sigh of disappointment, she began to think of some other way to alleviate herself of her current ailment – boredom. As she pondered on what she could do, she continued to walk around the building. Ah, yes, the library was on this floor. Hmm…perhaps she could find an interesting book in there? Well, might as well check, seeing as she had absolutely nothing better to do.

Silently, the ruby-eyed female poked her head into the library, her gaze immediately resting on the only living person in the room; the Super High School Level Heir, Byakuya Togami. The tall, blonde male was sitting at the desk in the room, reading a book, like always. She wondered how he could do this every single day and not get tired of the feat, but ended up just chalking it up to his reserved, albeit (in her opinion) snobbish personality….and possibly an intense liking for books. Maybe. As she entered the room, she knew he knew she was there, even though he refused to acknowledge her. That was simply his cold personality at work, she figured. Well, then, if he was not going to greet her upon her entry, she would take the matters into her own hands. “Hello, Togami-kun.” She smiled as she spoke, hoping to maybe illicit some sort of a response from the other.

Of course, Togami had heard the door to the library open. Great, just great, he thought, probably Fukawa coming to bother him again, or worse, Genocider Syo had come to play. Either way, he wasn’t about to look up to greet the unwanted guest, whether he be right about who it was or not. Silently, he continued to read his book, refusing to give the slightest hint of acknowledgement to the intruder. The elite had done his best to ignore the other person in the room, but once _she_ had decided to speak up, he knew there was absolutely no avoiding conversation. Celestia was not someone who would give up until she had gotten what she had wanted. He wasn’t about to speak merely to satisfy her, no, he would ignore her for as long as possible, which was to say until she absolutely demanded his attention. Given her personality, he didn’t think he would be able to keep this charade going for too much longer. Oh well, he would try, anyway.

Upon hearing no response, Celes found herself clicking her tongue in annoyance. Now he was ignoring her just to piss her off, and she knew it. This was not a game she wanted to play, and she was not about to let him win. “You know, Togami-kun, it’s very rude to ignore a lady.” She chimed, still wearing that deceitful smile she always had in place on her lips. Oh no, he was not about to ignore her so easily. “May I ask what you are doing here?” She prodded, now giving even more cause for him to answer her, though he would probably still ignore her.

Oh, this had gone exactly like he had planned. He knew that after ignoring her, she would try and come up with some reason to make him talk, but she wasn’t about to bring out the big guns yet, was she? No, probably not. She was too smart to play a game such as this so poorly. Well, he supposed that maybe if he were to just bluntly answer her questions she would grow bored and leave….or he could answer sarcastically. “I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?” He asked in reply, holding up the book in his hand, though still refusing to look at her. Yeah, sometimes it’s hard to keep sarcastic comments to oneself.

She let out a small laugh. “That was funny. I did not know you had a sense of humour.” The gambler replied, her smile widening a bit at his reply. Maybe she could get a rise out of the usually stone-cold rich boy? Oh, would that be a good feeling.

With a roll of his eyes, the heir went back to ignoring the gambler with a surprising amount of ease. Then again, it wasn’t exactly a hard task for him to ignore people he deemed inferior to himself. This whole lot of people seemed to be so, despite them all supposedly being the best of the best in their respective fields.

With his lack of a reply, Celes let out a small sigh. “You really are a rude man, Togami-kun. I cannot believe you would completely ignore a lady when all she is doing is trying to make light conversation with you.” With a light shake of her head, the lolita headed over to a bookshelf, making sure it was relatively close to the blonde male. She was not going to be ignored, no, not this time.

At this little display by the girl, Togami let out an aggravated huff. No, he didn’t want to play this game with her. Fine, he would cooperate. “Has it occurred to you that maybe I don’t want to speak with you?” He answered, rather coldly. Well, that was his nature, after all.

Upon hearing his remark, Celes rose to a standing position. Now she had him. “You never want to speak to anyone.” Her tone was even and calm and her smile was as sickeningly sweet as that of a succubus. “Now that I have you ensnared in my little trap, though…” Almost as if she had been planning this, she then pulled a deck of cards out of seemingly nowhere. “Would you like to play a little game with me?”

Shutting his book and setting it down on the desk, the male merely shook his head at her offer. “It’s almost as if you planned this whole thing out to the last detail…” He muttered quietly to himself.

“I did not plan anything out at all.” Celes protested. “I simply keep a deck of cards on me at all times. You never know when the perfect opportunity for a rousing game of solitaire will present itself. Now, answer me, will you indulge with me in a game of, say, Blackjack, or will you deny me this?”

Did Togami play cards? Sometimes. Was he any good? Well, that really depended on the game. He couldn’t play Poker to save his life but Blackjack, he had a chance. Maybe. This was Celestia Ludenburg that he would be playing against, should he accept. She was the Super High School Level Gambler – this kind of stuff was what she did to make a living. It was how she got her title. Taking her on would be a terrible idea, really, especially if they were to lay down any kind of bet. He would be sure to lose. However, she never mentioned anything about a kind of bet. Curiously, he checked the time and realized it was still just a few minutes before the nighttime announcement would be made, alerting all of the living that it was 10PM and that the cafeteria would be locked, and that they all should probably get going to bed. With time to kill and Celestia, who showed absolutely no signs whatsoever of leaving, Togami supposed he had no choice but to accept her proposition.

“Oh, alright, fine.” He grumbled, reluctant to give in to her proposal.

“Excellent!” She exclaimed, happily, as she pulled up a second chair and sat across from him at the desk. This was going to be an interesting game, she thought. Of course, she was going to win every single round, but that did not mean it wouldn’t be interesting nonetheless. After all, she would be playing with the esteemed heir of the financial giant, the Togami Conglomerate.

As well as he knew he was bound to lose this little game, he didn’t let it show on his face. No, it was his usual mask of confidence and arrogance that was plastered there, right where it usually was. He watched as Celes expertly shuffled the deck and dealt the hands. He wouldn’t say it aloud, but he had to admit that she was certainly skilled at doing such a task. As the pair began to play the game, Togami couldn’t help but realize how dangerously close he was getting to a bust. He should probably stop pass on the next hit.

Of course, as they played, the somewhat unlikely duo ended up having a few exchanges. Nothing too serious, though. Mostly, the conversations were just Celes teasing Togami about his hand and Togami telling her to just shut up and deal the cards.

“My, my, Togami-kun,” the raven haired girl began, “don’t you know it is not polite to tell a lady to shut up?”

“Celes, I’m not going to repeat myself. Just shut up and deal the damn cards.”

The loli smiled a bit to herself, noticing she had won yet another round of Blackjack, and picked up the cards on the table, shuffling them back into the deck. Oh yes, this was certainly a lot of fun. However, she knew this small little spurt of fun would not last much longer, for whenever the students found any sort of enjoyment….

“Well now well now well now well now!! What an unlikely pair we have here!”

The two students didn’t even flinch at the sound of the black and white teddy bear’s voice. Maybe they had already grown accustomed to his random appearances. No, they weren’t exactly random. He would appear whenever students seemed to be enjoying themselves. Did the two really seem to be so amused by this pure chance card game that Monokuma would really take time out of his busy schedule of tormenting the students just to personally harass them? The whole circumstance seemed odd.

“What do _you_ want?” The heir practically spat, wishing he could just throw Monobear out one of the windows.

“Yes, what is it you want? Can you not see that we are in the middle of a game?” The gambler agreed, wishing she could punt the damned bear down the hallway and not get blown up in the process.

“Hmmmm…..well, I guess it’s really nothing….” Monokuma began, waving one of his stubby paws. “Buuut, if you two are sooooooo eager to know, I guess I’ll just have to tell you!” Of course, the animatronic bear’s expression never changed, but one could easily tell that if it could, a giant grin, even more devilish than usual, would be plastered on his bi-coloured face. “I was just going to say, I hope this isn’t some kind of illegal gambling thing going on.” He teddy bear chided, placing his nubby paws on what would be his hips. “If so, you both are going to be in big trouble!”

“Oh, please. There is nothing illegal going on.” Celes huffed, quickly refuting all of the “headmaster’s” claims. “It is not as if either of us has anything worthwhile to bet while locked inside this school. Besides, I did not offer up a bet. Togami-kun would not be stupid enough to take it, anyway.”

“Are you completely ignoring my fabulous Monokuma coins~?” asked the bear.

“You mean those token-looking things we find every so often?” The blonde asked, tapping a finger on the desk. “They’re mere trash. Not even a real currency.”

Monokuma let out a small growl. “They are NOT trash and they can be used to buy your fellow classmates gifts at the MonoMono machine in the School Store!”

“Why would I want to do that?” Togami asked, adjusting his glasses. “We are all participants in this death match and I have no intention of getting buddy-buddy with anyone. They are all bit players, side characters. Only one can survive this school life of mutual killing, and that one will be me. There is no need to build relations with these lowly parasites.”

“Upupupupu~!” The stuffed toy laughed. “Then why on Earth are you playing Blackjack with Miss Ludenburg? Aahahahahaha!!” This one last final laugh, Monokuma suddenly disappeared.

A deep sigh escaped Togami’s lips. Damn, he was really one annoying-ass stuffed toy. There was no point to his words. The male knew for a fact that the only reason he was even playing this ridiculous card game was just to kill some time, that, and because he knew the raven haired girl sitting across from him, acting as the dealer, wouldn’t leave him alone unless he did. In retrospect, she may have left, should he have continued to ignore her. She wasn’t Fukawa. But, it was already far too late to go back and do that, plus, this wasn’t completely terrible.

Celes was about to open her mouth to say something to Togami when all of a sudden, the nightly announcement played. Instead of words, what left her lips was a small sigh. “Well, I suppose we should pack it up for tonight.” She commented, smiling, as she began gathering the cards and putting them in their box.

The blonde nodded in agreement and got up from his chair, Celes soon doing the same. The female headed to the library door in silence while the male picked up his book from earlier and placed it back where he had gotten it on the shelf.

“That was a rather fun game, Togami-kun.” The girl chimed, giving the boy a small smile. “I did not expect you to know how to play relatively well.”

“I have many talents.” He replied, simply, turning toward her and heading for the door as well.

From there, the unlikely duo headed down the hallway and then down the stairs to the first floor. After crossing the first floor of the school, the two headed to the dormitory, all in complete silence. They weren’t walking together for any reason other than they happened to be headed to the same general place. As they began to enter the red hallway where the dorms were located, Celes turned to face Togami. “Well, I suppose this is where we part ways.” She said, with a smile. “Good night, Togami-kun.”

The elite huffed. “Yes, this is where we part ways, though we should have done such much, much earlier.” Without stopping, he simply continued straight on ahead to his room door. “…….Good night.” He muttered under his breath as he slipped the key in the lock and stepped inside, making sure to re-lock the door behind him.

Of course, the gambler had heard his little remark at the end, whether he wanted her to or not. She smiled a bit to herself, taking it as a small victory. She had already considered making him one of the butlers in her dream castle, seeing as he was tall and attractive. Maybe she had also found a new source of amusement in him, at least whilst locked in this hellhole of a school. She continued to her room, letting her thoughts wander, as she, too, slipped the key in the lock and stepped inside her dorm to prepare for bed that night.


	2. Books Are For Plotting Murder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a brief encounter with his psychotic stalker, Togami once again finds himself in the library with none other than Celestia Ludenberg. What the hell is _she_ doing looking through the mystery section of the library?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW OKAY THIS WAS SO LATE. My original plan was to do one update a month, but looks like THAT isn't happening. I got kinda busy for a little while, but the main reason this is late is because I just had such a hard time writing this chapter. I'm so sorry that things are moving so slowly, but I promise that in about another chapter or two, the real plot will be revealed! As you can see, I attempted comedy in this chapter and failed horribly.
> 
> Now, in the chapter, we get a tad bit of foreshadowing, in more ways than one. I carefully chose my words in specific areas for that specific reason so pay attention!
> 
> By the way, the speaker in the beginning of this chapter is Togami. c:

_The first time, I could simply dismiss running into you, or rather, you running into me, as a mere chance happening. The second time, it was possibly more than a coincidence. I don’t believe it was fate, because if it was, I would have known what your intentions were, or at the very least, I would have known you were hiding from me your true intentions. Then again, at the time, you were a mere pawn to me and your actions didn’t matter, so long as they didn’t result in my death._

The exploration of the third floor had taken up the majority of the day. Of that, Togami was more than certain, not to mention Asahina’s discovery of Alter Ego as well. With only a short amount of time left before the nightly announcement, the blonde thought he would just grab a book or two from the library. Might as well get something to read at night while in the dorm, he thought as he made his way to his usual spot. Surely there would be no one else in the dusty old library at this time of night. Upon his arrival, he had found himself feeling a rather…familiar presence.

“Get out of here, Syo.”

“Awh, man! How’d you know it was me?” With her usual cackling, and a few words of defeat, the twin-braided serial killer made her presence known to all in the area, or rather, the heir she had been stalking from the dorms. “Could it be that the adorable glasses man has accepted my feelings of pure passion and desire??? Kyahahahaha!!!” Lost in her own romantic (and most likely psychotic) delusion, Genocider let out yet another loud, almost screeching witch cackle.

Whatever slim, slim chances Fukawa had at winning Togami’s heart had long since taken a giant leap out of the metaphorical window.

“I’m serious, Syo, get lost.” Unamused at the girl’s…well, everything, the blonde simply crossed his arms and remained as seemingly unfazed as he possibly could – with her reputation for killing the men she fell in love with, of course he was dying inside. If there was one person in this killing game Togami knew he should fear, it was the girl standing before him. She had claimed hundreds of lives and if her words in the trial and just recently were any indication as to what she was thinking, he had the sneaking suspicion he was going to be next on her list. Hopefully, he could tame the beast, so to speak.

The psychopath simply clicked her tongue and stepped closer to the boy. Oh, she loved it when they played hard to get. “Oi, four-eyes, listen up. You may be able to push around Miss Morose, but I’m a whole ‘nother person. I respond to no one a…a…ACHOO!!”

The girls eyes had somehow shifted from blood red, back to their normal incredibly pale brown colour. Looking around, she realized she was now standing near the library, and that she was not alone, either. Nice shoes, pants that looked like they belonged to a suit, it could only be…

“B-B-Byakuya-sama…!!” She stuttered, feeling as if she was going to faint. What had Syo done, now? Well, at least her beloved Byakuya wasn’t dead. Slowly, a flustered blush began to spread across her cheeks and her stance shifted from surprise and skittish to that of a lovestruck teenage girl, gushing over a boy. Oh wait—

“Get out of here, Fukawa.” The blonde commanded, slightly less forceful that he was with Syo. Now, a tinge of bored annoyance could be clearly heard in his tone. At least this one would listen.

“But Byakuya-sama…! Wh-what if you need me for anything…?” The girl questioned, looking like a kicked puppy.

“Why would I ever need someone as useless as you?”

Fukawa looked down, feeling utterly defeated and crushed by his words. Slowly, she began to shuffle away from Togami, who thought the sight of her actually leaving was more like a dream come true. She probably had also realized the time, he guessed, and was going to go get ready for bed. Whatever. Not his problem. Now stalker-free, for the moment, at least, Togami took the opportunity to head into the library. Much to his surprise and disappointment, he wasn’t going to be alone. Upon opening the door and heading in, he saw another girl, laughing lightly with her hand covering her mouth.

“My, what a devoted girl you have there~” Celes teased, the smile on her face only growing as the heir drew closer. “Why don’t you try to be nicer to the poor thing? All she wants to do is please you.”

“She’s annoying and smells like a trash dump.” The blonde retorted, as cruelly as ever. If Fukawa had been here, that surely would have crushed her entirely.

“That may be so, but she loves you with all her heart.” The gothic lolita continued. Truthfully, she didn’t care at all about the author. She found the girl strange, even more so now that her second personality had come to light.

“I would be better off if she had really been the one to kill Fujisaki.” He grumbled heading over to one of the bookshelves. “Now, enough about her. Care to tell me just what you’re doing here?”

To Celes, the tall blonde before her sounded much like someone talking to their ex-lover or an ex-roommate of some sort. It wasn’t as if this was his own private living quarters, so his tone really struck her as odd. “I am simply here to get a book.” She said with a smile.

There was no harm in that, the boy supposed, though he still would have much preferred to be alone. “Fine. Whatever.” He huffed, not really in the mood to argue. Really, at this rate, Togami swore he would run into every other living student in the school. If he began running into the dead ones, _then_ he would start to worry, but for now, he was just annoyed with his luck.

As he began scanning the shelves for something to take back to his room to read, he heard the distinctive sound of heels clacking against the floor, and the sound only drew nearer.

“What is it like, having a serial killer as a stalker?”

That was an odd question, the heir thought. Shouldn’t it be an obvious answer? “Exactly how you would imagine it.” He figured that should both answer her question, and keep her from pursuing the subject. The last thing he ever wanted to talk about was Touko Fukawa or Genocider Syo.

Softly sighing at the reply, Celes just shook her head. “I would not know how to imagine it.” She replied, bluntly. “I have never had a serial killer stalker…or any stalker at all, for that matter.” Finding no real need to keep her attention focused on Togami, the raven-haired girl went over to another bookshelf on the other side of the room to see if she could find something decent to read.

With the sound of her footsteps walking away from him, Byakuya got it in his head that he would get even for her even mentioning Fukawa again. Silently, he followed as closely behind her as possible, stopping mere millimeters behind her once she had made it over to the bookshelf. Once she was busy browsing a shelf, he leaned in close to her ear and began whispering. “There’s always the constant threat that you will be the next target. You always want them in front of you because you have no idea what’s going to happen if they should get behind you. Your life is always on the line, more so than it is normally in this killing game.”

The sudden feeling of the heir’s hot breath on her ear made the gambler gasp in surprise and jump slightly, nearly causing her to drop the book in her hands. Since when did he get so close to her? She didn’t even hear him come up from behind. “I…see…” She muttered, trying to force her heart rate back down to normal. “You’ve made your point very clear, Togami-kun.”

Thoroughly satisfied with her reaction, Togami backed up to a safe distance, just in case Celes decided to retaliate. Thankfully, she didn’t. Feeling that it was safe to approach the shelf, the blonde did just that, moving so that he was standing next to the girl. Curiously, he peeked over at the book in her hands, the very same one she almost dropped earlier. “A murder mystery?” He asked, confused. He could have been wrong, seeing as he had no interest in getting to know anyone, but to the heir, Celes just didn’t seem like the type to like mystery novels.

“I’m merely protecting myself.” He replied, that deceitful smile present on her lips yet again. “I figured, maybe I could learn something useful about investigating from the detectives in the novels.”

“Since when do you want to get involved with the investigations? You’ve never seemed to want to get involved with it.”

“Well, with the continually decreasing number of people here, I might as well learn something. You never know who is going to be killed next. Should our leading detectives get murdered, the rest of us will have to investigate, whether we want to or not.”

That was an undeniable fact. You could never know who was going to be killed next, and should Naegi, Kirigiri, or Togami get eliminated from the game, the rest of the students would be floundering with their lack of investigation skills. The killer would surely find that situation advantageous, and would have more than just normal luck on their side. If someone were to become the blackened in that scenario, they would surely succeed in leaving this hellhole of a high school. Hating the reality of this truth, Togami figured he would just drop the subject and continue on his hunt for a decent book.

The remainder of their respective book searches was spent in utter silence, each of them focused on their own thoughts of what sounded interesting and what they knew to be a terrible read. Of course, it was Celes to speak first and break the silence.

“You would think the nightly announcement would have played by now…”

Togami, who was ripped from his thoughts at the sound of her voice, looked up from the book he had been skimming, turning in the direction he had heard her voice coming from. “You’d think, but I guess Monokuma is just late with it today.”

“Maybe the mastermind has been murdered?” The lolita asked, simply spitballing ideas.

“Get real.” The male answered, rolling his eyes. “There’s no way the mastermind would just drop dead.”

“Well, then, maybe they simply fell asleep before they got the chance to play the announcement.”

“Now that sounds more realistic.”

Celestia smiled faintly and approached Togami. “You know, I wonder if the mastermind does actually sleep. The last two murders happened quite late at night and yet, the person controlling Monokuma claims to have watched them both play out in real time.”

“So are you saying it’s wrong to think that the mastermind sleeps?” The heir narrowed his eyes, not fully understanding what the girl was saying.

The smile on the gambler’s face widened slightly. “No, I am just simply saying that I think it is highly unlikely that they would just simply pass out.”

As Togami was about to make a rebuttal, that long awaited nighttime announcement played loud and clear over the school’s loud speakers and monitors. His words turned into a sigh and he gathered up his books and headed toward the library door. “I’m going to bed. Don’t make it your life’s goal to find me again tomorrow. I’ll just ignore you.”

“I had not intended on finding you today, Togami-kun.” Celes answered, that smile still firmly in place on her lips. “I came in here looking for a book and then you showed up. If anything, I would say it was almost as if you had sought me out.” He words were followed by a small, light laugh.

Her response was only met with a roll of the eyes from the blonde. “You’re not funny.” He chided, somewhat tempted to throw a book at the girl. “….Good night.” He mumbled before beginning on his way to his dorm.

Once she was sure he was gone, Celes took one last glance at the book in her hand before leaving. “Maybe this will give me some ideas~” She practically purred as she left the library.

Once she reached the dormitory, she could see Togami, from afar, of course. Thinking back on their conversation earlier, Celes couldn’t help but grin to herself. It was almost an accomplishment, getting him to believe her lie that she was looking for a mystery book to learn something about investigating. Part of her wondered if he really had completely bought the lie, seeing as he was obviously a skilled investigator, but at the same time, he hadn’t questioned her further, so there was really no need to doubt anything. As she slipped into her room for the night, she stuck the book in a desk drawer. She would get to reading in during some of her free time during the oncoming days. If all went well, she would be walking free from this nightmare in no time, and could gladly live out the rest of her life pursuing her dream – that glorious castle with all those attractive butlers would finally be hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was so much shorter than I had hoped for. It just barely reached the fifth page! But, I suppose that's just how writing is. Some chapters are short, some are painstakingly long.


End file.
